SIR

See also:

• GEORGE
• GEORGE, 8TH MARQUESS OF TWEEDDALE (1787-1876)
• GEORGE, HENRY (1839—1897)
• GEORGE, LAKE
• GEORGE, SAINT (d. 303)

GEORGE

See also:

• WEBBE, WILLIAM (fl. 1586)

WEBBE

See also:

• SIR GEORGE WEBBE DASENT (1817–1896)

DASENT (1817–1896)  , English writer, was born in St Vincent, West Indies, on the 22nd of May 1817, the son of the attorney-general of that island . He was educated at Westminster school, King's College, and Oxford, where he was a contemporary of J . T . Delane (q.v.), whose friend he had become at King's College . On leaving the university in 184o he was appointed to a diplomatic post in Stockholm . Here he met Jacob Grimm, and at his suggestion first interested himself in Scandinavian literature and mythology . In 1842 he published the results of his studies, a version of The Prose or Younger Edda, and in the following year he issued a Grammar of the Icelandic or Old-Norse Tongue, taken from the Swedish . Returning to England in 1845, he became assistant editor of The Times under Delane, whose sister he married; but he still continued his Scandinavian studies, publishing translations of various Norse stories . In 1853 he was appointed professor of English literature and modern history at King's College, London . In 1861–1862 he visited Iceland, and subsequently published Gisli the Outlaw and other translations from the Icelandic . In 187o he was appointed a civil service commissioner and consequently resigned his post on The Times . In 1876 he was knighted .

He retired from the public service in 1892, and died at

Ascot on the 11th of June 1896 . In addition to the works mentioned above, he published The Story of Burnt Njal, from the Icelandic of the Njals Saga (1861) . See the Life of Delane (1908), by Arthur Irwin Dasent .